"Chad Oliver - Blood's a Rover" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oliver Chad)

Blood’s A Rover
By Chad Oliver
It’s a very hard thing indeed for a man to define what he means by “good”—and hard,
sometimes, to see good in the misery, disorganization and squalor that results

Illustrated by van Dongen.


An A\NN/A Preservation Edition.
Notes


Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey’s over
There’ll be time enough to sleep.
A. E. Housman.


I.
Night sifted through the city like flakes of soft black snow drifting down from the stars. It whispered
along the tree-lined canyons between the clean shafts of white buildings and pressed darkly against
windows filled with warm light. Conan Lang watched the illumination in his office increase subtly in
adjusting to the growing darkness outside and then looked again at the directive he held in his hand.
It still read the same way.
“Another day, another world,” he said aloud. And then, paraphrasing: “The worlds are too much with
us—”
Conan Lang fired up his pipe and puffed carefully on it to get it going properly. Then he concentrated
on blowing neat cloudy smoke rings that wobbled across the room and impaled themselves on the nose
of the three-dimensional portrait of the President. It wasn’t that he had anything against President Austin,
he assured himself. It was simply that Austin represented that nebulous being, Authority, and at the
moment it happened that Authority was singularly unwelcome in the office of Conan Lang.
He looked back at the directive. The wording was friendly and informal-enough, but the meaning was
clear:

Headquarters, Gal. Administration.
Office of Admiral Nelson White,
Commander, Process Planning Division.
15 April, 2701. Confidential.

One Agent Conan Lang
Applied Process Corps
G.A. Department Seven

Conan: We got another directive from the Buzzard yesterday. Seems that the powers that be have
decided that a change in Sirius Ten is in order—a shift from Four to Five. You’re it. Make a prelim
check and report to me at your convenience. Cheer up—maybe you’ll get another bag of medals out of
it.
Nelson.